Boston College School of Social Work will kick off the spring semester's Collaborative Research Forum series with a talk by Professor Jessica Black about neuroimaging studies and how they relate to education. Lunch is provided. More about the Collaborative Research Forum »

The Macro-SIL Program at Boston College School of Social Work is sponsoring a Leadership Speakers Luncheon Series during the 2014-2015 academic year. The program is designed to introduce Macro-SIL students and other BC Social Work students interested in leadership skills to the practical experiences of leaders in social-justice-oriented careers. Leaders are invited to campus to bring their expertise in administration, policy, change management/transformation, and social innovation to the discussions. They are interviewed about their greatest leadership challenge, their most important leadership lesson, and advice for students. A facilitated Q&A session with students will follow each interview.

Chrismaldi Vasquez is Associate Director of Family Independence Initiative, Boston, which leverages the power of information to support economic and social mobility. FII is proving that documenting and investing in the initiative and ingenuity of low-income families and communities is the most effective way forward. More about Macro-SIL Leadership Speakers Luncheon with Chrismaldi Vasquez »

News

Promoting Personal Choice in Long-Term Services and Supports

Activity slides at the orientation for the new Partnerships Project.

OCTOBER 18, 2013

The National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services (NRCPDS), a research center within the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, and the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) hosted an orientation to kick off their Partnerships for Person-Centered and Participant-Directed Long-Term Services and Supports Project. The Partnerships Project will infuse participant-directed and person-centered competencies into the social work classroom and field curricula within social work programs and the Aging and Disability Network organizations in eight U.S. states and New York City, equipping a cohort of future social workers with the knowledge and skills to implement and evaluate participant-directed and person-centered services. Participant-directed and person-centered services help people of all ages and types of disabilities to maintain their independence and determine for themselves the long-term services and supports that work best for them.

The orientation, held at Boston College in September, welcomed representatives from participating social work programs and aging and disability network organizations. The day began with welcoming remarks from Alberto Godenzi, Dean of Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, followed by presentations and sessions led by Kevin Mahoney, Professor and Director of the NRCPDS; Nancy Hooyman from the CSWE; Casey DeLuca, Associate Director of Training at NRCPDS; and Mark Sciegaj, Senior Consultant for Training and Research at NRCPDS.

"This meeting launched a pioneering effort to prepare future social workers in person-centered planning and participant-directed concepts and practices," said Mahoney. "This effort, growing out of social work’s basic principles and informed by recent research, has the potential to re-shape core competency frameworks. The work of these nine social work programs, and their agency partners, will hopefully play a vital role in preparing social workers for the challenges of reforming America’s health care system."

The Partnerships Project is funded by the New York Community Trust through the NRCPDS and CSWE and will be implemented over a three-year period from 2013 through 2016. The project will be piloted across eight states and New York City and will be used as a national model to rebalance long-term services and supports to be more person-centered and supportive of living in the community.